Why Personal Development Is Just As Important To Career Advancement As Professional Development
In order to have a successful career there is a lot more required than the usual advice of having high work ethic, and executing on time. So many times we focus on the external mechanics of improving our expertise, getting the right experience, going above and beyond the job description, delivering on time, and some of us are even savvy enough to get visibility by expanding our network. Yet how we show up, who we are being, our mindset and our presence have just as much to do with professional success as all the other factors listed above. Success is just as much about who we are being and not just what we are doing.
Success coach, author and entrepreneur Jim Rohn said “work harder on yourself than you do on your job to be successful.” He undoubtedly hit the nail on the head. You see our net worth will never exceed our self-worth. If we don’t think we are good enough or have the mindset and habits of a leader we will never advance to our full potential professionally or personally. We can have all the knowledge and personal expertise in the world but if we don’t believe we deserve to succeed or belong in the position that we are in, we will unconsciously or even consciously find a way to sabotage ourselves back down to the level that we see ourselves in. We will never supersede the upper limit that we have mentally placed on ourselves based on messages and blueprint that we have been given throughout our lives via our family, culture and society. Women in particular have been given a prescription to believe that there is a limit to the roles we can attain and many of us have unconsciously called in the prescription and taken the medication. But as Morpheus said to Neo in the movie the Matrix we can either choose the blue pill and stay in the beautiful “safe” and seemingly secure prison that society has built around us or we can dare to take the red pill that represents risk and uncertainty yet sets us free from being enslaved and controlled by societal expectations of us.
Why You Need Personal Development
I know I have already lost some people who look down smirkily on personal development as a fad or something that they don’t need, but allow me to push you to look deeper and temporarily put aside your automatic objections. We all have belief systems that we are unaware of that either propel us to our goals or severely limit us from achieving them no matter how hard we work. If we have been given messages that are aligned to our goals then these messages can be the hidden fuel behind the scenes driving us towards success. For example in our culture boys are encouraged to be competitive through sports and pushed to take risks and face challenges, fortunately for them if they aspire to leadership positions these early experiences and conditioning make it a little more natural for them to take on leadership roles that require the utilization of these skills.
Women on the other hand are taught to obey the rules, be nice and not take risks, so if we pursue leadership positions that require us to be disruptive, competitive or take risks our earlier belief systems will hinder us rather than help us to achieve these goals. We need to overcome opposing mental conditioning in order to win. According to British psychologist Federic Bartlett, schemas are a set of preconceived ideas that our brain utilizes to interpret information. These schemas are normally developed and based on our early life experiences. Once schemas are formed they’re unlikely to change even when presented with new evidence to the contrary. We therefore do not think critically and clearly when this new evidence is presented, but instead our brain operates on autopilot based on old information even if that old information is no longer factual or helpful. So even though we try to act in new ways, and display new behaviors aligned to our goals especially when we are given feedback by our managers and organizations that we need to change, we end up stuck in old patterns. Personal development is our tool for growth, to help us break out of these old patterns. Do you want to grow like the plant below or remain stuck?
Potentially limiting beliefs or habits that could be holding you back in your career
Beliefs
I need to change who I am in order to succeed
If I take a risk I will fail and failure is bad
I need to follow all the rules and ask for permission to try something new
I am too inexperienced to add value
I need to play in my lane
If I talk about my achievements I will appear arrogant
My work will speak for itself
I am not good at networking
I will avoid office politics at all costs
I need to do everything perfectly
I need to get everything done on my to do list
Over reacting to criticism or caring too much about what people think
Shrinking back from a challenge
Overthinking everything
Habits
Disorganization
Lack of planning
No thinking time only focusing on execution
Avoiding difficult discussions
Not owning my voice and my brilliance
Prioritizing everyone else over myself
Hitting the snooze button
Prioritizing work over self-care routines that sharpen the saw as Stephen Covey says, such as sleep, exercise, meditation, visualization, affirmations, reading , journaling or other forms of self-care and personal development that we know re-energizes us and boosts our creativity
Allowing others to define me and my potential
Not owning my voice and my brilliance
Prioritizing everyone else over myself
Starting the day with procrastination by hitting the snooze button rather than developing a morning routine that sets us up to be the most productive
HABITS OF SUCCESSFUL LEADERS
Success isn’t something that we pursue in our career or personal lives but it is birthed out of our mindset, habits, character and belief systems.
Do you have the habits and the mindset of a successful leader? Read part 2 of this blog to be published on February 24th 2019 to learn the most common habits of successful leaders and a good process for developing these habits.
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